This fall’s 2014 Brita Water Filtration campaign reminded us that a can a day soda or ice tea drinker consumes 221,314 sugar cubes in a lifetime. As Ad Age says “the beleaguered soda industry” … “has become a punching bag for health advocates and competing beverage brands.”

As a Brita filtered water drinker — even filling a reusable water bottle for on-the-go because I can no longer bear to fill our planet with empty plastic water bittles — I found Brita’s “sugar cube city” in New York’s Chelsea Market, made from nearly four tons of sugar, to be overwhelmingly effective marketing.The sculpture features 28 buildings, varying in height from 2 to 7 feet.

Brita asserts that four tons of sugar represents a family of four’s lifetime consumption of the sweet stuff. And this sugar sculpture skyline is what four tons of sugar surging through our brains and body looks like.

Sugar is a comparatively foreign substance in my body, although I do drink wine and vodka. Because the brain science news on diet soda isn’t any better in terms controlling appetite, obesity and the illnesses associated with this critical health problem of obesity, I don’t drink diet sodas or diet juices either. Frankly, they are poison to me.

As we reposition Anne of Carversville back to its original roots in 2015, writing about critical health news that affects obesity, aging, sexuality and our general sense of wellbeing, sugar is front and center in my mind.

Earlier this month, medical headlines argued More than salt, sugars may contribute to high blood pressure. Medical News Today reported recently that “regularly drinking high levels of sugar-sweetened soda could lead to the premature aging of immune cells, leaving the body vulnerable tp chronic diseases in a similar manner to the effects of smoking.”

Coca Cola and PepsiCo increasingly advocate for lower-calorie sodas and smaller-portioned packaging. The two companies have been joined by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group in pledging to reduce beverage calories consumed per person nationally by 20% by 2025.

Read AOC’s writing on sugar and diet sugar after taking in these sugar skyscrapers.